PDF State Education Policy

Report Cards

Accountability--Reporting

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State Exemplars of School Accountability "Report Cards"

July 2014

The profiles provided below link to exemplars of school accountability "report cards" from nine states and the District of Columbia.

What you will find: A main "report card" page with school and district reports A sample elementary report A sample high school report.

For more details, see the ECS report Rating States, Grading Schools ? What Parents and Experts Say States Should Consider to Make School Accountability Systems Meaningful.

Sample elementary and sample high school names are provided -- with embedded links -- where possible. In those states where it is possible to generate a printable file, we have provided those links. In some states, it is necessary to look for the school by name from the main page. Be sure to click through tabs and/or categories and other areas that allow users to drill further into data.

Arizona

Main page: Note that the new report cards have a number of elements "yet to come:"

Maricopa Elementary School Maricopa High School

District of Columbia

Be sure to click from "summary" to "detail" to "targets" under the report card heading. Main page:

Hyde-Addison Elementary School McKinley Technology High School

Delaware

Main page: Be sure to click on "details" for a few categories -- under the "student" tab, school safety and discipline, for instance.

Lake Forest East Elementary School Lake Forest High School

Illinois

Main page: Cooke School (K-5) Canton High School At-a-glance report (use the left-hand bar to change categories and allow time to load)

Kentucky

Main page: Fill in the district name (McCraken County) and then find the school from the list. Be sure to click through all of the tabs across the top but also any tabs within categories.

Concord Elementary (McCraken County) Reidland High School (McCraken County)

For a school report card that incorporates a learning environment survey, check out this school report from Deming High School, Deming, New Mexico (on

Louisiana

Main page:

page 4 of 7).

Select the most current year and select LaSalle Parish, then each school. Be sure to click on the "get

report" button.

Fellowship Elementary School (in LaSalle Parish)

Jena High School (in LaSalle Parish)

Massachusetts

Main page: Jackson Street (in Northamton district ? full report) Jackson Street (overview) Milford High (in Milford district ? full report) Milford High (overview)

Ohio

Main page: Be sure to click through the tabs and drill down where applicable. Although the "component grade" elements are marked as "coming in 2015," details are provided for nearly every other element.

Crestview Elementary School Cuyahoga Heights High School

Wisconsin

Main page: Pederson Elementary (snapshot) -- detailed report Altoona High (snapshot) -- detailed report

Education Commission of the States ? 700 Broadway, Suite 810 ? Denver, CO 80203-3460 ? 303.299.3600 ? Page 2

How did we pick these exemplars?

Parents To determine how useful the report cards actually are to parents, ECS asked parents from across the country to follow a link to an individual school report card from each of the 50 states. The 14 parents were selected by ECS staff and represent a mix of educational attainment, ethnicity, income levels and geography, both in terms of urban/rural and in terms of U.S. states. Their children range in age from kindergarten to high school. Each of the parents reviewed report cards from all 50 states and rated them from 1 (unacceptable) to 5 (excellent) in the categories of "easy to read," "provides sufficient data" and "useful." ECS selected for review a mix of elementary, middle and high schools that were moderately diverse in student population and that received ratings in the moderate to upper range.

Overall, the parents favored report cards with clear graphics that made the data easy to understand. They also liked when additional information was available if a viewer wanted to drill down. However, there was not always consistent agreement. On the same high school report card, for example, one parent labeled the report card as unacceptable in each category while another parent labeled the report card as excellent in all categories.

Professional Researchers ECS researchers were asked to rate each report card from 1 (unsatisfactory) to 3 (excellent) in the following categories: Findable, Readable, Understandable and Graphics. For the latter category, the question was "Were graphics used well to convey the information?" Even those experienced in online research had difficulty: "I wasn't able to find school-level report cards," lamented one, while another noted, "Could not find using a Google search -- lots of confounding search results."

They identified eight report cards as above average in all categories: Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maine and Ohio.

Of those, they agreed Arizona, Illinois and Ohio overall had the best, easy-to-find, informative and readable report cards.

Not every researcher "favorite" is included in this document. ______________________________________ Compiled by Kathy Christie, Vice President for Knowledge/Information Management, Education Commission of the States

Report cards from Illinois and the District of Columbia were identified as favorites by a majority of parents, or eight of the 14. They were closely followed by Delaware (chosen by six parents) and then Arkansas, Ohio and Wisconsin (each selected by five parents). Not every "favorite" is included here.

? 2014 by the Education Commission of the States (ECS). All rights reserved.

ECS is the only nationwide, nonpartisan interstate compact devoted to education.

ECS encourages its readers to share our information with others. To request permission to reprint or excerpt some of our material, please contact the ECS Information Clearinghouse at 303.299.3675 or email ecs@.

Equipping Education Leaders, Advancing Ideas

Education Commission of the States ? 700 Broadway, Suite 810 ? Denver, CO 80203-3460 ? 303.299.3600 ? Page 3

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